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October 11, 1911] THE
Editorial 1
Mr. Charles Stelzle, the animated secretary
of Church and Labor in the Northern Assembly,
is addicted to handing out "catchy" remarks
intended for public consumption. Among
these we find the following: "The ministers
learn a lot at college about the Hittites, the
Hivites, the Jebusites and various other 'ites,'
and are able to preach learnedly about the conditions
of these interesting peoples, but they
v - - - -
Know next to nothing about the Chicagoites, the
Pittsburgites and the New Yorkites. Both
terms of the above proposition are much exaggerated,
after the manner of most 'catchy' talk
era, but they may furnish a pointer for lovers of
antiquities lest they become antiquarians.''
Sir Robert Hart, so widely known because
of his familiarity with eastern affairs and
because of his distinguished ability in dealing
with them, died several weeks ago. He was
one of the most interesting figures that ever
appeared in international and diplomatic business.
No one ever had better opportunity to
know whether or not foreign missions are of
value. His testimony to what the work has
done, its influence, value, and happy results,
as well as to the character and self-denial of
the missionaries themselves, was ever strong
and unequivocal. For forty-five years he was
without doubt the great westerner in China,
reorganizing, modernizing, developing all
the interests, and especially the finances, of
that great empire as the representative not
only of British interests but of the interests of
all the nations. He judged of missions from
the standpoint of the citizen as well as that
of the Christian.
'11
The finest school for the acquisition of the art
of putting things is a company of untrained
minds, as very young people, a colored congregate
11, an attentive crowd of men in a heathen
land. Dr. John A. Broadus, himself a prince
among preachers, and whose chief charm was his
wonderful simplicity, once said, "Study Butler's
Analogy and preach to the negroes, and it will
make a man of you!" One of the finest illustrations
of this was found in our own John L.
Girardeau, who was one of the finest preachers
of the last generation of our church. His greatest
work was done while he was preaching to the
negroes in Charleston. It was there that the
profound thinker and logician developed the
matchless power which he showed in the pulpit.
His studies made him rich and profound. The
necessity upon him to preach to the comprehension
of the mass of his hearers made him natural,
simple, clear, illustrative, eloquent.
Dr. Washington Gladden has for many years
been one of the leading figures in the Congregational
ministry, both in pulpit work, in literature,
and on the forum. He has recently resigned his
charge, the First Congregational Church, in Columbus,
0., giving as his reason, according to
the Religious Telescope, the small audiences
which he has at church services. The question
becomes a pertinent one, as to whether or not he
may account for the great falling off from his
once most largely attended ministry to the fact
that in recent years he himself has so much fallen
off from that which constitutes the power of
the pulpit, the preaching of the cross. Dr.
Gladden's ministry of late years has been largely
devoted to sociological and economic matters.
There is nothing like the cross to draw men. Dr.
Gladden *s own ministry has proved it.
.
PRESBYTERIAN OF IBS 8 C
\otes and
Yes, it is true that by attending church you
may not always learn something new, and that
the preacher is incapable of imparting any instruction
to you. But that makes no difference
as to the duty of going to God's house. Jesus did
not stay away from the synagogue for any such
reason. He knew infinitely more than the ingnorant
rnlers of the synagogue or the leaders of
the worship there. There was not a thing told
TTim tVir>rO tVl?t he dill net J *
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more profoundly than the synagogue minister.
Nevertheless "He went into the synagogue, as
his custom was." He made it a place for worship,
not for entertainment, not for whiling away
the time, nor for instruction even. Through
worship, indeed, comes instruction always, that
instruction which one always receives from coming
in contact with the divine object of worship.
The Department of Ministerial Education is
being brought prominently before the Church
by literature sent out from the offices of the Executive
Committee in Louisville. Attention is
called to the day of prayer, the first Sunday of
December, which the Assembly has appointed
in Denan or Ministerial .Education and the supply
of ministerial candidates. It is requested
that on that day special prayer he offered for
schools and colleges, and that pastors present
to onr young men the claims of the gospel ministry
and lay upon the hearts of the people the
duty of contributing generously to the cause of
ministerial education. An admirable tract on
the subject of Ministerial Supply has been prepared
by Dr. A. B. Curry, of Memphis, and
will be furnished gratuitously to any who are
interested and will apply to "Rev. Henry H.
Sweets, 122 Fourth Avenue, Louisville, Ky.
It is quite usual to see the statement in secular
newspapers and magazines that the princi
pies or tne unristian religion are decadent, as
indicated by the general indifference of religious
writers and teachers to them. With this
plea, a writer in the New Work Tribune attempts
to justify the class of skeptical preachers
who conspire to get possession of soundly
evangelical pulpits, and to secure the endorsement
of professedly evangelical church courts.
The Tribune writer thinks that those who sit
in the seat of the scornful should be welcomed
into good and regular standing in the ministry
because "there is a general decay of doctrine."
To this the Philadelphia Presbyterian
says, "Nothing could be farther from the fact,
and the writer's wish must be father to the
thought," which fits the case exactly. There is
quiie hii ariny 01 nangers-on in religious circles
who secretly hate the truth, but find it
profitable to be in good company. Some of
these openly denounce the truth while others
applaud. We must believe that the rank and
file of the evangelical Church cherish the precious
truths of the gospel, which truths constitute
Christian doctrine. It is now very apparent
that the defenders of the faith are not only
vindicating sound doctrine, but are pressing
hard the retreating forces of skeptical criticism
and rationalistic materialism.
Less than half a eentury ago membership in
any other than the Established Church disqualified
a student from entrance to Oxford University.
Now, the British Weekly informs us,
the University is rapidly assuming the religious
complexity of the country at large. The number
of non-conformist students has rapidly increased
since the endowment of the Rhodes
IOX& (969) 9
Comments
scholarships. We read that "of this year's
Rhodes scholars, at least eight are Baptists,
eleven Congregationalists, and twelve Presbyterians.
The number of non-Episcopalians at
nrpsont in ?? -
r. iu icsiucuce is not tar short of 500;
Presbyterians, from 170-180; Congregationalists,
from 110*120; Methodists, from 70-80 ; Baptists,
from 45-50; Friends, from 12-16. This
total does not include figures for the Woraen'i
Colleges, from which another forty or fifty may
be added. When we reflect that the Tests Act
was repealed barely forty years ago, these figures
are striking, and they come as a surprise
even to those who know Oxford well. Further,
the remarkable development of the Student
Christian Movement has profoundly affected
the situation. Ten years ago the Oxford branch
was small and uninfluential:
; A\f XO Hie
strongest moral and religious force in the University.
In it High Churchmen, Low Churchmen,
Free Churchmen meet in living spiritual
fellowship and Christian service."
Our valued contemporary, "The Presbyterian
'' of Toronto, has found a pastor who would
like to be carried back through time and space
to the door of the little church in the city of
Philadelphia in Asia Minor, which was the
model one of the Seven Churches of Asia. The
anxious pastor would then hover close to the
down-sittings and up-risings of the "angel" of
the church in Philadelphia and carefully note
how he made his calls, whether he catechised
the children, what manner of words he addressed
to the ill and the sorrowing, whether he
ocvieyveu invitations to formal dinner parties
and tried to get in touch with the ladies of his
congregation by dropping in at afternoon teas.
He would note also how this model pastor
laid out his time, how long he spent in bed, how
much time he gave to study, how much to pastoral
work, and how much, if any, to golf or
tennis.
And then what a Sunday he should have! He
must not forget to take a huge modern notehook
with him, to hold all the pointers received.
In one brief hour he would master the
secrets of sermonizing. He would carefully note
the construction of the model sermon, its divisions
and sub-divisions, the number and nature
of the illustrations used, the preacher's
tricks of voice and gesture. Never again would
he need to preach a poor sermon. He would
also pay particular attention to the choir.
"Would it be surplicedt Were there paid soloists
and a paid organist f Did any of the soloists
sing so well that no one could understand
what they sane?! TTnw did
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manage to avoid a weekly explosion t And then,
to make a long story short, the model session,
the model board of managers, the model Sunday
school, the model Ladies' Aid. and W. P.
M. S. should all he put through a searching
investigation, and the net resnlt would be a
model church, presided over by a model pastor,
in the year of onr Lord nineteen hnndred and
eleven.
Onr contemporary thinks the solicitous pastor
wood then proceed to make a failnre of it
after all, because "what the early Chnrch has
to teach ns is not a lesson in methods nr nrrra -
?
zation, but a lesson in faith and consecration";
which remark has some degree of merit. It yet
remains true that we learn more from the Acts
and the Pastoral Epistles about both methods
and organization than we will ever learn by
"facing our problems of to-day."